Of course, we have all had the annoying 5 or 6 hour layover. Wouldn't it be nice if airports offered some kind of entertainment? I was thinking something along the lines of a movie theater, a park, even something along the lines of an amusement park, or a water park, or even just one little roller coaster?

I have heard that Amsterdam is quite exciting, but I forgot why. Wouldn't these be a nice change from the monotonous waiting around in seats with nothing to do? Do any of you guys know of any airports that have taken up this idea and have some form of entertainment? Thanks for responses.

Coming from Anchorage, I always have a 2-4 hour layover. Whenever I change in Salt Lake, I always take the UTA bus downtown. The good thing about SLC is that it is close to dowtown Salt Lake, as opposed to DEN, which is in Kansas (seems like).

Evan767, yeah it'd be nice but think of the delays caused by families/kids turning up late at the gate after losing track of time being "amused". Everyone would be finding excuses for turning up "just in time" at the gate in order to finish the movie they're watching. Nightmare.

Seriously, its hard to have entertainment for such a small crowd. I remember that LAS when they did their D-Gates complex, they added tons of room for shopping and restaraunts. Then 9/11 happend, and foot traffic fell a lot, since now instead of anyone going to past security, only ticketed passangers could go, plus the slump in air travel.

SIN has movie theater, swimming pool, and gardens (cacti and sunflowers). And the spotting is not bad either !!!!! plus the shopping and if you have a few hours, there is a city tour that you can take.

Sooner or later, someone will come up with entertainment venues at your friendly neighborhood airport facility. However, in the post 911 world, such facilities would have to be on the non-steril side of security to turn a profit.
I liked the above concept in Outside Magazine and, my airport BWI gets props for the cool bike/jogging trail that circles the airport.

HKG has amazing shopping -- beats any airport mall in the world, I think. It also has a great view of the runway and all the planes coming in and out, if you think spotting for a few hours is great fun. Or, you can take the train into town (if you are allowed in town -- I forgot the transit rules for foreigners) which only takes half an hour, and you're right in downtown and can do lots of things there. Have High Tea in the Pen and then go back to the airport. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon

When I was at DTW airport/McNamara terminal, they had a number of large screen TV's with CNN on, many shops, plenty of places to look at a/c (including many DC-9's of NW). One could buy a book or magazine and just sit around and read. Some airports have had video game rooms, some like LAS have slot machines (lousy payouts to players, mucho profits to owners/operators). AMS and FRA have porn shops. Some offer reasonably priced sit-down resturants (TGIF, Chili's). Perhaps some set up could be done so you could rent a movie CD/player that one could rent at one airport and drop off at another (I think this has been tried already).

??, Amsterdam might be known worldwide for their red light district and the Netherlands is very liberal, but their is no such thing as a pornshop at the airport. All the bookstores do have an "adult" section, but that's quite normal for any bookstore in Europe, so no big deal.

On the non-sterile side of NGO we have a performance stage (currently occupied by an F-1 car), hot spring, massage rooms, diverse shopping, art gallery, and amazing observation deck giving you a 360 view of the area.

But once through customs, they figure one would not be sticking around long enough to do anything. So its just boring.

Much of NGO's profit comes from its retail. I would say most people up on the top level shopping area are locals doing shopping and relaxing.

My last flight from DFW was soo long that I wondered if I would die of boredom. The layover was about four hours. I wished they would do something like put in a small movie theater. How about a strip bar? That would certainly help the hours fly by.

Singapore Changi (SIN) does have a movie theater, gardens and a few really good children's playgrounds. There are many free internet stations too. And the spotting is probably some of the best in the world if you are into big planes and widebodies. Great observation deck and the airport have lots of B777, B747 and A340's coming in and out often and plenty. A380 will make its commercial flight debut there too!